Here’s a bit of info about that event, deleted from our final manuscript due to space issues:

Peter Case (musician): They were playing in Buffalo [March 17, 1970], at the Kleinhans Music Hall. It was a very strange gig, because the billing was the Grateful Dead, the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Lukas Foss. The opening act was a top-40 band that was starting to kind of freak out. They were called the Mellow Brick Road at one point, but I think they just changed their name at the gig to The Road.

The Grateful Dead was fantastic, and they were full-on into that “Dark Star” period. They were great. Then the orchestra came out. I guess they said it was going to be a battle of the bands. The Dead was playing their music, but the leader of the orchestra would yell “Attack!” They’re not improvisers, particularly, the guys in the orchestra, but they were coached to attack the Grateful Dead musically. And they did, with their tympanis, their blasts of drums and horns and cacophony. The Grateful Dead were playing, doing one of their improvs, that loping boogie beat that Lesh and the drummers would be playing, the thing was just rolling along, and Jerry would be soloing. Then for a second there, the orchestra would sort of drown it out, and then the orchestra would stop and [the Dead] would sort of emerge out of the clouds of the attack, still doing their thing. It was pretty funny. The Grateful Dead never blinked. They just kept playing. [Laughs] It was really really funny and great.

Another strange thing about the show: The very opening act was a John Cage piece. You’re in whatever state you’re in when you go see the Grateful Dead in 1970… The way this piece went was, there were violinists and they walked out into the theater and they played their part as they walked through your aisle. You would have to stand up and let them pass. They went right through every aisle in the place, playing their violins. It was incredible, but the best part, of course was the Dead.

It was a great-sounding place, so the Dead sounded great in there. Everybody walked out saying that that was just completely insane, that the orchestra had topped themselves by acting completely nuts.

Bob Weir: I remember we brought our smallest amplifiers and we were still three or four times too loud. We had to turn them down to the point where we couldn’t really get tone out of them in order to not drown out the orchestra. A rock’n’roll trap drum kit acoustically is at least twice as loud as a symphony orchestra.

This Is All a Dream We Dreamed: An Oral History of the Grateful Dead just picked up its 50th review on amazon! Forty-three of ’em are 5 stars, and none are less than three stars! Read the reviews here.

Join the Berkeley Public Library Foundation on June 2, 2016 at 7:00pm for a special gathering hosted by noted authors and chroniclers of the Grateful Dead, Peter Richardson and David Gans.

Richardson, an American Studies professor at San Francisco State University and author of No Simple Highway: A Cultural History of the Grateful Dead, will join David Gans, journalist and author of This is All a Dream We Dreamed: An Oral History of the Grateful Dead, to share perspectives on the cultural milieu which shaped and was shaped by The Grateful Dead.

The event will take place at Spats on Shattuck, one of Jerry Garcia’s Berkeley hangouts in the 1970s.

Tickets are $40 with proceeds benefitting the Berkeley Public Library and can be purchased here. Appetizers and beer are included in the ticket price.

This event is part of AfterWORDS, the Berkeley Public Library Foundation’s seasonal series of up close events with artists, authors and thinkers. Proceeds support It’s Time for Central, a fundraiser for Berkeley Public Library’s new Teen Room at the downtown Central Library.

About the Organization

The Berkeley Public Library Foundation raises funds for and advocates on behalf of the public library. The Foundation provides funding for library innovation and to help sustain the excellence of the buildings, services, collections and programs at all five locations of Berkeley Public Library. The current focus is on the “It’s Time for Central” campaign for improvements to the first and second floors at the Central Library, including a dynamic new space for teens, improved lighting and technology, a flexible reference room for expanded community activities, a more welcoming entryway, and display areas for public art. The Foundation also works to increase public awareness in the wider community that the public library is a living, evolving institution vital to our diverse community.

“The beauty of this unique book lies in the authors’ decision to let ‘those who were actually there’ tell the Grateful Dead story in their own words, from their own memories of living, working and traveling with the Dead, culled from hundreds of interviews conducted over many years. The bonus of these ‘mini-memoirs’ from the band members, crew, associates, family and friends lies in their recalling details of everyday life inside an environment that was all but ordinary. Great reading, plus an important reference book to add to your Grateful Dead bookshelf!”

– Rosie McGee, photographer/author and one of those who were there, then.

…one of the greatest virtues of An Oral History of the Grateful Dead is the palpable way the discourse captures the good-natured whimsy and openness to serendipity at the heart of the band’s formation on through much of their career…

Whether long time fan or someone seeking a look inside the history of the band, this book will offer you glimpses into not only who the band was, what they set out to do, how they did it, the ups and downs, the twists and turns, and everything and everyone who made it all work. It paints a picture, colorful and quirky, of a band’s early and humble beginnings, and takes you on their journey from playing in small spaces to the large stage. There is a larger understanding of their reputation for being the major psychedelic jam band throughout the ‘80s and early ‘90s, up to Jerry Garcia’s untimely passing.

This Is All a Dream We Dreamed: An Oral History of the Grateful Dead by Blair Jackson and David Gans was published on November 10. You can order an autographed (by both authors) copy direct from us: click here!

Margaret Quamme reviewsThis Is All a Dream We Dreamed in the Columbus Dispatch Sunday, January 17, 2016

‘”Although the book’s ideal reader is probably a passionate fan, even the casual observer will find plenty to relish, including nuggets such as an account of a surreal concert at the pyramids in Egypt, and comments such as manager Rock Scully’s on the importance of having Pigpen McKernan — whose drug of choice was alcohol — in the band: “When Garcia’s guitar neck turned into a snake, Pigpen saw it as a guitar; Jerry could rely on him to do that.”‘